The arcade version of The Lost World: Jurassic Park is a Sega Model 3 light gun game which loosely follows the plot of the film by the same name. It can be seen as a successor to the arcade Jurassic Park (though that game was controlled with joysticks). The Lost World: Jurassic Park is one of the most popular and common Model 3 games, and is frequently regarded as one of the best light gun games ever made. It is also notable for being the first Model 3 game not to be created by AM2.

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Gameplay

Ian Malcolm and Sarah Harding go missing after landing on Isla Sorna to conduct an investigation. A rescue team is sent to the island. The player controls one of two rangers, whose goal is to find Malcolm and Harding while using a tranquilizer gun to neutralize hordes of hostile dinosaurs.

The game is an on-rails shoot-em-up featuring five levels based on environments from the film, with paths that change depending on the skills of the player. Four of the levels feature a boss battle that must be won to advance the game. Boss enemies include Tyrannosaurus, Deinosuchus and Carnotaurus. Velociraptors are also featured as enemies throughout the game. Pachycephalosaurs, Compsognathus and venom-spitting Dilophosaurs are also encountered. At times, the game presents the player with an opportunity to rescue a human who is being attacked by one or multiple dinosaurs. Neutralizing the dinosaur(s) results in the human rewarding the player with either a temporary weapon upgrade or additional health.

Development

Sega's AM3 development team began work on the game in early 1997, after receiving permission from Universal Studios. Because the Model 2 hardware was not able to provide the desired level of realism, the developers chose to utilize Sega's new Model 3 arcade system board, which allowed the game to operate at 60 frames and 100,000 polygons per second. Early in development, the developers only had access to the film's original script, and selected action scenes from the script to include in the game. The developers also worked with the film's promotional crew and visited the film's sets, which inspired the level designs for the game.

The game's dinosaurs were designed from scratch by AM3, as ILM's production sketches were unavailable at the time. The developers originally considered adding a creature similar to the Loch Ness Monster, but later dropped the idea as it was decided it would have been awkward for the player to shoot. A Deinosuchus was used instead. The Carnotaurus was implemented as a boss because it was included in the original film script, even though the creature never appeared in the final film. This and other inaccuracies were later corrected in The Lost World: Jurassic Park Special.

The developers initially planned to make the two-player mode different from the one-player mode, in regard to routes the players would take or the types of dinosaurs they would encounter. This idea was scrapped due to time constraints.[2] The game was publicly announced in May 1997, and was unveiled the following month at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).

Reception

GamePro wrote that the game, when it was unveiled at E3, "was so cool, it earned ShowStopper status even as a display,"[3] while Next Generation wrote that it was, "Easily one of the most impressive titles at E3".[4]Next Generation also reported, "Some rival companies privately admitted: 'This game is so exciting, it could have become a hit even without the licensed property behind it.'"[5] After the game's release, Johnny Ballgame of GamePro wrote that the graphics "are a giant leap forward for gun games in terms of sight and speed." Computer and Video Games wrote that the graphics "look amazingly authentic".[6]Sega Saturn Magazine wrote that the game's graphics "are to die for", noting that the game featured "the best dinosaurs ever seen outside of the cinema".[7]Arcade magazine called the game "hours of mindless fun," and "a fantastic coin-op shooter which bore little resemblance to its cinematic cousin".[8]

Anthony Baize of AllGame rated The Lost World: Jurassic Park four and a half stars out of five, and wrote, "The programmers did an excellent job to make gamers feel as if they are in the middle of an island with crazed dinosaurs as far as the eye can see." Baize praised the graphics, writing that the game "is a masterpiece. The graphics look as if they have been lifted from its namesake movie. [...] The dinosaurs look and sound real. That is fairly amazing." However, Baize criticized the game's loud sounds, saying that "the deafening sound coming from the speakers may be The Lost World: Jurassic Park's only real flaw. There is a line where anything can be considered to be too loud, and The Lost World: Jurassic Park crosses that line. While the loud sound is supposed to engage the gamer thoroughly, it can be distracting. [...] The sound is a bit too loud, but that should not keep anyone from playing it."[9]

Cancelled port

In January 1998, AM3 expressed interest in porting the game to the PC, claiming that it would be impossible to port the game to the Sega Saturn.[2] In January 1999, it was announced that the game would be converted and released for Sega's Dreamcast console, with larger levels than the arcade version.[10] In August 1999, Sega AM3 was in the process of converting the game for release in Japan in January 2000, with a possible U.S. release in the spring of 2000.[11] These plans were cancelled by January 2001.[12]